News

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has developed a highly detailed wind energy forecasting system with Xcel Energy, enabling the utility to capture energy from turbines far more effectively and at lower cost. The system, which Xcel Energy formally took over last month, saves ratepayers several million dollars yearly.

As part of the Administration’s commitment to ensuring a clean energy future, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that up to $8 million in funding will be made available to encourage utilities, local governments and communities to create programs that empower consumers to better manage their electricity use through improved access to their own electricity consumption data.

Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) toured e-Green Management of Islip Terrace, New York to highlight the environmental, public health and economic benefits of recycling electronics.

Tierra Environmental and Industrial Services Inc., a centralized waste treatment facility in East Chicago, Ind., its owner and a manager were charged with conspiracy and felony violations of the Clean Water Act in a seven-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury.

Nobel Prize winner George Olah and Surya Prakash of USC Dornsife have found new traction in their methanol economy concept with their latest publication, the Open Fuel Standard Act of 2011, and the new discoveries of shale gas.

Preliminary findings from a study on the use of hydraulic fracturing in shale gas development suggest no direct link to reports of groundwater contamination, according to the project leader at The University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute.

An international team of researchers funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) will travel next month to one of Antarctica's most active, remote and harsh spots to determine how changes in the waters circulating under an active ice sheet are causing a glacier to accelerate and drain into the sea.

Without a bold change of policy direction, the world will lock itself into an insecure, inefficient and high-carbon energy system, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned as it launched the 2011 edition of the World Energy Outlook (WEO). The agency's flagship publication, released today in London, said there is still time to act, but the window of opportunity is closing.

Kawasaki Disease (KD) is a severe childhood disease that many parents, even some doctors, mistake for an inconsequential viral infection. In fact, if not diagnosed or treated in time, it can lead to irreversible heart damage. After 50 years of research, including genetic studies, scientists have been unable to pinpoint the cause of the disease.

NOAA's updated Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI), which measures the direct climate influence of many greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, shows a continued steady upward trend that began with the Industrial Revolution of the 1880s.

The level of the enzyme carbonyl reductase (CBR) is elevated in the livers of fish that have been exposed to cleaned wastewater. Scientists at the University of Gothenburg can show that CBR has properties that may make it suitable to be used as a biomarker, an early warning signal of environmental toxins.

Pipe-in-pipe systems are now commonly used to distribute water in many homes. The inner pipe for drinking water is made of a plastic called cross-linked polyethylene (PEX). Are these pipes harmful to health and do they affect the taste and odour of drinking water?

Holm oaks and other forests in lowland areas of Mediterranean mountains could expand by up to 350 percent due to global warming. In contrast, those forest formations that are more adapted to cold and humid conditions, such as beech and Sylvester pines, could shrink by up to 99 percent.